The Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio (RTR) is a small statistic with a lot of information. The metric compares a country’s urban population (cities with more than 500,000 people) with the length of rapid transit lines (including rail, metro, and BRT) that serve them. This metric offers a snapshot of the access, equity, and quality of life that come with increased transport options and that allow countries to track progress over time.

Many factors influence RTR. A dense city may require less transit length to provide the same level of access as a more sprawling city with the same population. Because of this, RTR is perhaps most useful for comparing transit growth over time. As populations grow, transit investment must at least keep pace with that growth and must increase faster than population growth in order to improve the ability of people to move around cities.

This map presents a baseline for countries to gauge their transit growth in the coming years. Across a diverse range of financing and development levels, countries can all make smart investments in their infrastructure, and in turn, an investment in their people.

Cycling plays a major role in personal mobility around the world, but it could play a much bigger role. A report, A Global High Shift Cycling Scenario, presents the potential for dramatically increasing bicycle and e-bike use in cities around the world. Read the report for detailed exploration of the CO2 and cost benefits of a shift toward cycling.

There are many other potential uses for spaces reserved for parking. This illustration puts the opportunity costs in perspective, showing how the private and public realm could be reshaped for higher value purposes.

BRT systems are growing rapidly, bringing comfortable, fast, high quality transport to millions of people in some of the world’s fastest growing nations, at a fraction of the cost of metro and light rail. 1,849 of the 2,580 km of true BRT corridors have been built in the last ten years, with sweeping growth in many countries around the world. Read more about the growth in BRT.

The new report, A Global High Shift Scenario, produced by from ITDP and the University of California, Davis, is the first study to examine how major changes in transport investments worldwide would affect urban passenger transport emissions, as well as the mobility of different income groups. This infographic demonstrates, by region, the emissions savings possible from a high shift toward low-carbon transport.

The 8 Principles for better streets and better cities highlight the key aspects of transport-oriented development that lead to good growth. For more information about these principles and best practices in TOD, see ITDP’s TOD Standard.

This inforgraphic accompanies documents such as Footpath Design and Better Streets, Better Cities, using standards from the Indian Roads Congress’ Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities to explain best practices for footpath design in India.

The Bike-Share Planning Guide establishes many important metrics and principles for evaluating bike-share systems around the world. Although each city makes bike-share its own, adapting it to the local context, many of the most successful systems share certain common features. The Guide provides important standards and insights into best practices for building bike-shares, and this infographic highlights five of the most important metrics and performance indicators for achieving a successful system.

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